Giving the order to "come home now" has never
been so easy for a parent to
deliver. The cell-phone industry has targeted the preteen market
with so many
choices and products you might think the craze was inspired
by a George Lucas
movie.
One parent who isn’t ready to give in (just yet, at
least) is Carla
Heinrich-Trautwein, a framer and photographer from Austin,
Texas, whose
11-year-old son desires a cell phone of his own. For now,
his mother insists
he can’t have one.
"I think 13 is the earliest I would consider it, whether
I get talked into it
before that is another story," she says, adding that
a preteen is more likely
to lose the device while a boy or girl who has already started
middle school
should know there is an economic consequence to owning a
phone. "An
older child will understand it costs money to make a call."
That position means her son, Carl, may be out of luck for
now, though
Heinrich-Trautwein anticipates no end to his requests. She
says the
most common answer her fifth-grade graduate gives when asked
why he needs a cell phone is that his friends have one. "You’ve
got to keep up with the Joneses," she points out.
Peer pressure figures as the conduit that allows this upcoming
generation
to stay connected. No group is more prone to wanting to fit
in than kids. And, according to manufacturers, one of the
items currently at the top of children’s wish lists
is a cell phone. The evidence is there to support the claim.
Not only are the number of companies entering the market
broadening, but Firefly Mobile Inc. has seen significant
results since it introduced cell phones to the children’s
market in 2004. The company has signed up more than 100,000
children’s accounts, according to published reports.
While the demand for the product is there, so is the manufacturers’ need
to
supply it. The Yankee Group, a market research company located
in Boston, says
four of five adult Americans age 18-65 own a cell phone.
While there is an
obvious resale market within that demographic, such penetration
minimizes the
room for growth. Hence, the focus on children, particularly
preteens.
To market to kids, cell-phone makers have teamed with the
super brands most
familiar with the monkeybar set: Disney, Hasbro and Mattel,
among others. To
market to parents, the toy and cell-phone industries have
tapped into an old
sales standby: playing the kid card. Hence the push to deliver
mobile phones into hands barely large
enough to hold them.
They’ve sold moms and dads on the safety and peace-of-mind
benefits of mobile
phones, as well as made the devices economically prudent.
Many of the phones
designed for children under 13 cost less than $100 and with
minutes
that can be programmed, allowing parents to control how much
time a child spends on his or her cell phone.
Some phones, including the model by Firefly that was the
first entrant to the market, feature limited controls, such
as only three dialing options: Mom, Dad and 911.
Some parents have bought into an omnipresent umbilical cord,
others haven’t.
"What 6-year-old is away from his parents for so long
that he needs to have
one?" asks Heinrich-Trautwein.
Critics question the need for school kids to have cell phones.
The
World Health Organization, for instance, is concerned about
the effect the radiation emitted by the devices may have
on the thinner brain tissue of children.
Yet cell-phone retailers believe the convenience they offer
families will lead to more sales.Overnight camp trips, birthday
parties, waits at the bus stop and after sports
practices are examples of situations where the benefits of
a children’s cell
phone can be very real. However, the limited options on the
products hinder
their cool factor, critics assert.
"This isn’t a cell phone," Paul Saffo of
the Institute for the Future told
USA Today when Firefly?s product was introduced. "This
is a dog leash.”
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